Gear Rose bronze coating

[lactoast]

Just thought I’d share some results from my quest to gucci up a P365 with rose gold, in case anyone has been curious about having their barrel match rose gold controls. The PVD coating for both barrels were done by STS Firearms in Wichita.

The P355 barrel was done in rose bronze, with a polish finish. It’s nice and shiny, and isn’t an exact match but I’m pretty happy with how it came out.

The P365XL barrel was also done in rose bronze, but with a matte finish. The matte makes it a lot duller than I expected, almost to the point it looks like a dirty copper. It also seems pretty quick to show scratch and wear marks, not that it matters much to me. If I knew this was how they would turn out, I would’ve gone with polish finish for both.


Was it worth it? Probably not, I’m sure they’ll look ugly in no time if I run a few hundred rounds through them, but at least my curiosity has been sated.

 

[Gawernator]

The polish look is wayyyy better

 

[Skilly]

The difference is in the prep, not the coating. Whatever standards the metal has been finished to, dictate what the coating will look like. The "dirtier" version is just media blasted and coated and the shiny version has some sanding and polishing to its finish before it was coated.

There is also DLC colors now (like Copper). PVD tends to wear pretty quickly.

 

[281express]

STS is great. Pricing, turnaround time (depending on color), and communication is excellent. If you want a in-between finish with some shine but still a little flat, Satin is the way to go, matte reminds of a chalkboard in feel and appearance.


For future reference, here's some pic of rose bronze high polish finish on the HD barrel, and matte finish hammer.
Rose Bronze satin finish on the Prodigy barrel
Copper high polish on the XP barrel and hammer, matte on magwell.

 

[lactoast]

STS is great. Pricing, turnaround time (depending on color), and communication is excellent. If you want a in-between finish with some shine but still a little flat, Satin is the way to go, matte reminds of a chalkboard in feel and appearance.

Nice! That's good to know, I was experimenting and had basically flipped a coin between matte and satin. I would probably enjoy the satin more, so I'll keep it in mind for future coating projects. Something about rose gold and ODG just hits for me.

 

[Skilly]

Here are some DLC bronze examples - same spot that does TTI pistols and barrels. This is WAY more durable than PVD. The barrel picture (right) that barrel has 500 rounds through it....not a single scratch or wear mark.

The two tone on the slide is a good example of the finishing I was referencing - same coating; different finishes because of the surface. WIth the barrels, the one on the right was high polished, and the one on the left was fine media blasted.

 

[No_glonks]

ACT in Santa Clarita does all kinds of coating- DLC, PVD, etc.
I know Angel City Armory uses them for all coating jobs. They wont do any gunsmithing, assembly/disassembly, but they are legit coating shop and do great work

Coating Technologies Company | High Strength Surface Protection Coating Services

Advanced coating technologies company providing surface coating, surface protection, high strength coating, and custom coating services for demanding industrial applications.

actechnol.com

 

[lactoast]

Oh good, sounds like I’m not done with my quest of wasting money on cosmetics. Thanks for the input everyone!